Courting attention: The boom in the six-figure property lawsuit

From duelling divorcees and basement wars to lawsuits against developers, legal battles are on the rise as the market soars.

There is little that piques the interest more than a court case — the more salacious and titillating the mud-slinging, the better. While pinstriped solicitors and periwigged barristers have been slugging it out on behalf of property owners for decades, their caseload has escalated in the past couple of years, with increasing numbers of disputes involving everything from basement digs to rising damp. Why? Thanks to a rising property market, the stakes have never been higher. Here’s the inside track on what’s happening behind the closed doors of the courtroom.